What goes down must go up

I forgot to mention in my previous blog that I also got a call from Makenzie's teacher that she had a really rough day on Thursday. I guess some girls did some things she didn't like, so she got really mad and said mean things, and even kicked one little girl on the shin. So, her teacher wasn't too happy, and said she often used cruel words, berated others, etc, and so she was struggling socially and so on. It was very disheartening. She kind of unloaded. I guess when you are upset with someone, you just see the negatives. I wrote back and addressed the issues, but also followed with the social aspects, because Makenzie talks as if she has a ton of friends at school. Her teacher responded that she does, because she is so fun, but they are mad at her a lot. Makenzie IS fun and she also can be very kind, especially to those in need. She did apologize, and I'm sure very sincerely. She does feel bad when she is unkind. She cried herself to sleep at 5:00 Thursday night after we talked to her about what her teacher had said. She is a good girl at heart.

Dave and Keaton got in a big fight on Friday night, and he went to sleep on the couch at 8:00 and even slept through a movie while I sat by him. I don't know why my kids are so tired and grumpy lately. I hope they get over it.

Saturday we went skiing at Park City. They are having the best deal. It is called startnow, and it is ski lessons for $25 (normally $215). But what makes it really great is it includes a free all-day ski pass and the ski rentals. AND, you can get the deal even without taking the lesson. You can have up to 4 total. We couldn't get into a lesson today, so we just used one of our days and skied. We were worried about how the little kids would do, but we skied all the runs together, and they did great. They struggled on the steepest black diamonds, but were awesome on the double blue, so it was a good day. It was sunny and about 44˚ at the base. Lunch was $84. I didn't think the meals were too overpriced, but when you have 5 drinks at almost $4 each it adds up fast. We forgot to take a camera or even a phone, so we have no pictures yet again.

Tonight Dave and I went to a Valentine's day dinner dance at the club. It was an elegant and delicious buffet. They had caviar, oysters, Kobe beef, Filet, tons of dessert options, and bananas Foster. We danced one (1) dance. haha. Then we went to the store and ran into tons of friends, caught up on their lives, and I came home to start (!) preparing my sharing time for tomorrow. Which is why I am on the computer at 11:30 pm, so Good-night!

Fighting with Discouragement

Monday was a fun day, I guess. Carson, Makenzie and McKay had the day off school, so I took them skiing at Park City. Dave was supposed to, when he scheduled the lesson, but he decided to go to work, so I had to take them myself. It was a 9-3 lesson, so I went skiing myself, too. The Park City ski resort is one of my favorites, but I have to admit, I did not have a fun day. First, I was by myself; second, it was really windy up on top; third, I was feeling nauseated all day for some reason. So, I skied a few runs, sat in the lodge, skied a few, had lunch. Lunch was good, though. The Café had a really nice salad bar, and a good bison chili. I still felt sick, though. When I went to pick up the kids, they begged me to keep skiing with them, and take them up Payday. I wouldn't, because I was tired and it was really starting to blow and snow. By the time I got Makenzie's boots off, her eyes were glazed over. Walking out to the car, I noticed that she was literally walking asleep. So I took her hand and led her to the car. She slept from 4:00 until after 8:00 the next morning.

On Tuesday, we had piano class. Everyone seemed like they were doing so much better than my kids. They sure knew the CD songs better, because we never have time to listen to it. I left feeling like we really needed to spend a lot more time on piano every day. Then, I got a letter from Makenzie's reading teacher, saying how behind she was on her reading, and outlining all the reading activities I needed to start doing with her everyday. Altogether, it was very discouraging.

A Busy Week

What a week! It just flew by so quickly. Keaton started karate on Tuesday. It's kind of funny, because he is just a beginner, so he is in a class with kids mostly 7-9. No one even close to his size. He was going to quit, but I told him if he wanted to do karate, he was starting so late there was no way to get around starting with little kids. So, he decided to do it. Carson and McKay might also. Makenzie tried it, but she was so disruptive I was mortified. I can't imagine her in a ballet class. Yikes. The biggest problem is, we just don't have the time to fit karate in. Hmmm. Between math tutoring, math homework, reading, chores and piano, we're already so busy. Of course, if the kids were more efficient with their time, they'd have more free time.

Today Dave took the kids up to Park City for ski lessons. Normally we wouldn't go there because it is too expensive, but they are having a special of $25 lessons, which includes rental and passes, so we decided to do it. Since the lessons were only 3 hours, we decided not to ski ourselves, so Dave took them up himself. He says it was a zoo. There was a race going on, and it was packed. He ended up having to park at the high school and take the bus in. No one could tell him where the ski school was. It took him 2 1/2 hours to park, get rentals, find the school and check them in to the class. However, they can have 4 more lessons at the $25 price, and on those days they can ski all day. So it will be good.

I went to Sundance to cross-country ski. It was so fun, of course! It was a different experience than the first 2 times I went, because, first, I can ski better and knew the terrain better, so I was able to go on a lot more trails in the 2 hours I skied. The other thing, though, was that the quality of the snow was so different. It was much more sticky; in fact, in some places it would stick to the bottom of my skis and I'd have to keep knocking it off. It was snowman snow, not powder. The good thing was I could go straight up the hills, rather than having to herringbone. And the downhills were slower, too. So, I learned to deal with some new conditions. Awesome. I do need to learn to dress for cross country, though. I alway wear way to warm of clothes, then just sweat.

The kids have Monday off, so I'll have to downhill with them. Bummer.

Tomorrow we have Great to be Eight. I'm the one presenting all the kids. We have 11 getting turning 8 this year, and 2 of them are mine. It's kind of bittersweet, they are getting so big. Who made the decision to have Great to be Eight and Priesthood Preview during the middle of the SuperBowl?? Obviously the Bishop doesn't follow football. Neither do I, but I bet some people are going to be irked!

FHE: Carl Bloch Exhibit at BYU

Yesterday started off less than great. I've had a cold for a few days, but thought I was getting better. Yesterday, though, I was just so tired and kind of dizzy, so I ended up going back to bed and sleeping until about 1:00. Then I just had time to do a quick clean (usually I clean for hours on Mondays) before picking up the kids from school.

The kids played so nicely, but didn't get any work done, which wasn't good because we had plans that evening: going to the Carl Bloch exhibit at BYU. We rented and iPad for everyone, which not only gave us a lot of insight to the exhibit, but also kept the kids very well entertained during the hour we were there. The paintings were very beautiful, and some of them familiar from the church's gospel art pack, church magazines, etc.

Afterward, we went to Red Lobster because we had a gift card (thanks for returning that to us Heidi, it came in handy). The kids wanted so much to go to the BYU Creamery, but I guess Dave thought someone might see him there (at BYU gasp), so he said no. The kids all cried and cried, but you know how Dave is. Actually it was really packed there. The kids were so well behaved; no one crawling under the table or walking around. (Well, Carson went to the bathroom twice, does that count?) McKay even ordered for himself. Wow, that's twice in a row that they haven't humiliated us. Maybe we can start taking them out more often. Actually kind of three times, Makenzie and McKay were very good when I took them to McCool's during Carson's Cotillion last week. That was good food, and interesting menu. I got a roasted beet salad with walnuts, yum.

In regard to Cotillion, they told him last week that he could bring a guest next time, so he's been trying to decide between Lily and Jennifer. We told him he can't take either girl, he's not old enough to date since he's only 9!

We have Great to be Eight next Sunday. Our two youngest will both turn 8 this year, isn't that crazy to think about? Wow, we are so lucky and blessed in all our children.

We got report cards recently. Some of the grades were not the best, but we are happy to see Carson and Makenzie finally at grade level in their reading! That has been a lot of work. Now we need to get the math up there. Keaton came soooo close to a 4.0, just 1% off in one class, but did make high honor roll. Yeah. McKay is doing so awesome in all his classes, too. Hooray for all the Pierce kids this term!

We've been trying really hard to eat healthy, for McKay's sake mainly, and it is starting to pay off. We've really seen McKay start to eat better, not so much the vegetables, but the main dishes. He really likes sour cream, that is for sure. I tried the Boeuf Bourgignone again, and it turned out really nice. However, Makenzie was just gagging into her plate because she saw me putting the grape juice in, and just didn't think that grape juice and roast would be good together.

Today I did the Get Ripped 1000 with Jenny again. It is so much more fun doing it with a friend, but not so fun lugging all the weights over there in 10˚ weather. Yesterday, by the way, I slept in my bed!!

Best Day Ever, Best Day Ever

Today was such an awesome day, and 4 out of 6 of us agree. Today, after beating down much objection from everyone else, I took the family out cross-country skiing at Sundance. Of course, Dave thinks anything other than downhill is for hippies or baggie-pant-wearers. And Keaton (having tried cross-country himself last week) had convinced the others that it was hard and boring. I had some reservations myself, as it does require some coordination and EFFORT. I envisioned a 20 minute circus of flailing arms and legs, falling, shrieks, tears, and a hasty exit as the reward of our effort and money. However, we were delighted, first off, to find that all of us could ski, passes and rentals included for a mere $65! The gear was in excellent condition and fit well. Wow, what a deal! Next, it was a gorgeous, glorious day. Then, all the kids took to the sport like they'd been doing it all their lives. They could do the flats, the ups and the downhills like old pros! And did they work hard. Everyone was shedding coats, gloves and hats as fast as they could. No one complained when they tumbled; they were enjoying it so much, they just jumped up and continued. We found an open meadow area with several loops, and spent the afternoon skiing and playing. The kids are much braver (=Faster) on the downhills than I am. Dave took some pictures, which I will add when I get them downloaded. They want to join a cross-country kids club! Yeah, loving it.

Miso soup for supper tonight, from the fine Cooking "Fresh" cookbook. The kids kept calling the Tofu "cheese"! Haha, at least they were eating it!

Exercise yesterday: Run 4.5 miles. Bummer part: My friend Stacy told me she ran 13.1 miles on Tuesday and that she's lost 7 lbs. Rats, I've got some work to do.

Exercise today: Cross-country skiing, my new favorite sport!

What I'm Reading

When it comes to books, it seems like things kind of go in cycles with me. I either have nothing interesting to read (in which case I fall back on Jane Austin or Sharon Shinn, my two favorites, or perhads Miss Read), or I have so many things I go back and forth between them. Right now, though, I have only two books I am reading. One is the Chicken Soup for the Soul: My Resolutions that I already told you about. The other is called A Million Miles in a Thousand Years, by Donald Miller, the one who wrote the blog about writing a story, not making resolutions. I really love this book. He talks about how he slowly comes to realize that, although he writes interesting books in which things happen, his life is just a series of boring, disconnected events: go the the store, type, watch fake lives on TV. Finally, his roommate tells him his life is a blank page, just start writing. So, he slowly and deliberately begins to write a story about serving other through various charities he starts/gets involved with. He introduces other people he meets, who have written exciting, meaningful stories with their lives. Its very thought provoking.

It is interesting, too, that Dave just happened to have a meeting with a client, whose company is called In Our Quiet Way, that helps orphans in Kenya. Is it coincidence that these too things (the book and the service opportunity) came at the same time? Maybe it is time we started to write a more meaningful story. Two great books about people writing stories of service are Three Cup of Tea, and Little Princes. Clearly, however, Dave and I cannot go to Afghanistan or Katmandu with our children. It is just to dangerous. But, I'm sure we can find ways to get involved that our children can safely do. It would make them less self-centered, I hope.

On the menu: Chicken and Snow Peas. We had a spinach salad last night. I should have got a video of Makenzie gagging or McKay washing the dressing off his sopressata. haha.

My workout yesterday consisted of: shoveling the snow off the sideway and drive way. You laugh, but it burns a lot of calories, plus counts as weights as well.

Today I did the Timesaver by Cathe again, along with the Pilates section of Brand New Butt plus Pilates by Janis Saffel. I just love her, she is so cheery. Just squeeked that in, and have to run get the kids from school. Let the fun begin.

Wild afternoon

I really, really don't like days when I have tons of running around, and that seems everyday now. Here's what is on the schedule for Carson tonight: Piano performance class, math tutoring, music class, pack meeting, basketball practice and Cotillion, which is in downtown SLC. The times overlap, and he can't do all of it. I really want him to do Cotillion, though, because it is on table manners, which he needs. It also makes him feel good because the girls all love him, he's so sweet. But, I'd be gone from 4:30-8:00, and no one else would get anything done (remember those 200 math facts, that won't happen without mom home!) Hopefully as the day goes on I can see more clearly what needs to be done.

On the exercise schedule: Get Ripped 1000 by Jari Love. I love it, but it is hard, so I planned to do it with a friend so I won't just sit around, typing on the computer, avoiding it. Oh yeah....